


Free

by Sheeana



Category: Hunger Games Trilogy - Suzanne Collins
Genre: F/M, Missing Scene
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-01-08
Updated: 2013-01-08
Packaged: 2017-11-24 03:32:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 625
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/629895
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sheeana/pseuds/Sheeana
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A missing scene from Katniss and Peeta's tour of the districts after the Seventy-Fourth Hunger Games.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Free

**Author's Note:**

> For [flipflop_diva](http://flipflop-diva.dreamwidth.org/) for fandom_stocking.

The town in District 5 is situated on the edge of a cliff and separated by a gorge, with one half of the town on one side and one on the other, and a bridge spanning the river between the two halves. After the usual speeches and thank-yous and smiles for the cameras, they bring Katniss and Peeta to the bridge. A special treat for the victors of the Hunger Games, Katniss thinks bitterly, but once she's halfway across and the wind is in her hair, her bitterness starts to fade away. 

Beneath her feet, water tumbles over the abrupt edge of the cliff, crashing against rocks far below before it rejoins the river at the bottom. The noise drowns out all the sound from the town. Machines hum and rumble in the rocks beneath the waterfall. Harnessing the energy of the water, she remembers from school.

Today Cinna has her in a light brown dress, laced up at the back in an intricate pattern that spreads out across her shoulders. Her boots match the color of the dress, but they're soft, with a worn-in feel, like the boots she wears into the woods. For the first time since they left District 12, she feels almost comfortable - and almost free. She isn't, and she knows it, and she thinks Peeta knows it too. Someone else has been controlling everything they do since the moment Effie Trinket called out his and Prim's names at the reaping. They'll never be free.

As she turns to face the wind and lays her hand on the railing on the side of the bridge overlooking the waterfall, she breathes in and then lets it out. Her eyes fall shut, and for a moment she's alone. No cameras, no pretty dresses, no crowds, no Haymitch telling her what to do, no Peeta, just Katniss alone somewhere that almost feels like where she belongs.

Peeta's hand at her back reminds her that she isn't alone. That she might never be alone again. He withdraws it before she can react - just a momentary touch for anyone who might be watching, just a reminder that he _loves_ her.

"You're beautiful," he says quietly, like he can't help it at all, like the wind is ripping the words from his reluctant lips. And Katniss doesn't know what to say to that. She's never known how to respond to that, so she stays silent. 

Sometimes his presence alone is enough to annoy her. But sometimes she likes the familiarity of it, the certainty that he'll still be there in the morning, thinking that she's beautiful. Today she thinks she likes it. With the wind rushing past, fluttering her skirt around her legs, tugging at her braid, it doesn't seem like the Capitol is looking over their shoulders, dictating the way his hand is supposed to fall on her back while they dance or the way his lips are supposed to touch the corner of hers as they board the train. It seems like this moment might belong to just the two of them.

The landscape spreads out before them, fields and forests and hills out to the distant horizon, and she wonders what's out there. She wonders if it might be better to run now, before they reach the Capitol and whatever new horrors await them there, but they don't have a choice anymore. No. They never really had a choice at all.

"Halfway there?" she says, turning to face Peeta.

"Halfway there," he agrees. He gives her a small smile and then quickly looks down before she can reply, as if he's embarrassed. She slides her hand down along the railing, until her fingers bump into his. When he looks up, startled, she smiles back.


End file.
